Newly restored, the venerable cathedral is more beautiful than ever. But if you can see her in full glory now, she still keeps many secrets she rarely or never unveils. A dossier "Secret Notre-Dame" learns us more.... Every year 12 million curious visitors come and admire Notre-Dame. It's the most visited monument of France, twice as much as the Eiffel tower, and and five times as much as the Mont Saint-Michel. What do the visitors remember of that visit, often in a hurry, sometimes jostled? I figure they all find what they were looking for. An architectural prowess for some, an exotic monument for others, compelling passage point for all tour operators. Certain will round up the romantic phantoms of Esmeralda and Quasimodo, the alarming characters of the "cour des miracles". It is not at all necessary to have read the book of Victor Hugo, a cartoon by Walt Disney and a musical popularized the myth to those who detest reading. The old lady doesn't unveil herself that easily. She cultivated mystery since eight centuries. First of all her origins. An ignorance that feed rumors and legends, like the devil-locksmith and the building angels. Then we have a historical mystery. Witness of all great and minor moments of France's history, Notre-Dame has seen it all, profane and sacred: merchants discussing the price of wheat in her nave, the obscene buffooneries of the "Fetes des Fous" during Middle Ages, the kings of France leaving for the crusades, the field marshals of Ancient Regime covered with flags and banners conquered from the enemy, Napoleon sacred emperor by the pope, the illumination-conversion of the French writer Paul Claudel an afternoon of Christmas in 1886, the general De Gaulle singing (false) the "Te Deum" at the liberation of Paris in 1944, etc....Without forgetting the revolutionary storm, which was almost fatal and of which Notre-dame came out looted, raped, martyrised crushed, and after having been a wine depot for the armies of the Republic! Besides official history, history of schoolbooks and tourist guides , there exist all these little facts, unjustly neglected or despised because anecdotic, but oh! so significant! Who remembers that the Treasure hall contains the thorn crown of Christ brought by Saint Louis from the crusades? That the parvis of Notre Dame is point zero of all roads in France? That her medieval statues are regularly the target of new vandals? That she attracts pyromanes and suicide candidates like a magnet? And, most important of all, Notre-Dame, where more than a million candles are lit every year, where thousands of faithful believers gather here on Sunday to pray at the mass, represents the Supreme Mystery, the only one that remains unexplained: the one of the Faith. Claude Rechain, arch priest of the cathedral didn't say otherwise in a recent interview: "Architects, master glass workers, sculptors wanted here, through the centuries, transmit us what they experienced themselves of the Mystery of Faith. I wish you could all, friends visitors, believers or not, perceive through your passage in the cathedral that it is always a privileged place for prayers and faith."